Lance Storm weighs in on the differences between producing for WWE and IMPACT.
Earlier this year, Lance Storm returned to IMPACT Wrestling as a producer and coach. He had previously done some work with the company in 2019 and later that year, began his duties as a producer for WWE.
Storm was with WWE until the COVID-19 pandemic began. He was interviewed by Ariel Helwani and while discussing his respective experiences in IMPACT and WWE, going back to his 2019 stint with IMPACT, he always enjoyed the atmosphere there.
He explained that when producing in IMPACT, it feels like a collaborative effort as opposed to WWE where Storm felt things were more confrontational.
Again, the experience I had when I worked with IMPACT the first time, it’s like, I liked everybody. I liked the atmosphere. There’s a really great team atmosphere and that to me is the real big difference maker that I noticed between when I was in WWE and not to bury WWE, they have their thing and live TV is different but, when you’re sitting on headset in WWE, it feels confrontational and when you’re sitting on headset in IMPACT, it feels collaborative. You’ve got the Director who’s asking, you’ve got Josh [Matthews] who’s doing — but it all feels like we’re all trying our best and if something happens that doesn’t go as perfectly as you want, it feels like we’re all just gonna try to figure out how we can make it better next time rather than feeling like you’ve been pointed out and chastised for something and it’s just, atmosphere is so much more rewarding when it feels collaborative than confrontational.
As far as IMPACT’s product goes, Storm enjoys it, but does feel like IMPACT is a victim of there being a variety of different wrestling products out there. He feels the company’s biggest hurdle is not enough people tuning in and not having the big, lively crowds.
It’s both great and frustrating I think [Storm said about the state of the pro wrestling business], in that there’s so much of it, which is what I like least about the business currently is there’s just so much product and I don’t think it’s just wrestling. I think entertainment in general, whatever it is, ‘We have our fan base. Let’s give them as much as they’ll take and get as much back from them financially as we can,’ that — like there’s so much WWE product and there’s a lot of AEW product and there’s a lot of wrestling product. If you wanted to watch all of WWE, it’s like you’ve got your what? Seven — count NXT — seven hours a week plus specials plus, you know, if you actually wanted to watch ‘Main Event’ which still exists, that’s so much. In AEW, you’ve got your three hours but if you wanna watch Dark and Elevation, it’s like, that’s gotta be what? Seven, eight hours a week? And being a fan of anything is just so damn time consuming now and I think that’s why and it’s a real shame because I think IMPACT’s product is really good and its biggest hurdle is not enough eyeballs and you know, if you watch the show, the biggest detriment to the show is we don’t have the big, large, lively crowds but it’s like the product itself is really good and I think we’re a victim of so much content, that, you know, if you’re a wrestling fan, obviously you know WWE is the McDonalds of the wrestling business and it’s like everybody knows about that and watches it and it’s like, then there’s all those people that, again, if you wanna say AEW is Burger King just to make analogy. Someone will probably take offense to that but, and it’s like, that’s a lot of more content and we’re that third or fourth, depending on whether you wanna count New Japan or Mexico or whatever and it’s just hard to get eyeballs and it’s a shame.
Storm has been involved in pro wrestling for over 30 years. His last sanctioned match was in 2016 against Matt Hardy.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Ariel Helwani with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
